Linde van den Bosch (General Secretary of the Dutch Language Union, 2004-2012): “There is a large increase in the number of applications and services that are supposed to make our lives easier. Most of them unfortunately do not speak Dutch. To sustain the position of the Dutch language, HLT research and development for Dutch needs continued support.”

This Volume

The Series

Preface

This white paper is part of a series that promotes knowledge about language technology and its potential. It addresses journalists, politicians, language communities, and others. The availability and use of language technology in Europe varies between languages. Consequently, the actions that are required to further support research and development of language technologies also differ. The required actions depend on many factors, such as the complexity of a given language and the size of its community.

META-NET, a Network of Excellence funded by the European Commission, has conducted an analysis of current language resources and technologies in this white paper series. The analysis focused on the 23 official European languages as well as other important national and regional languages in Europe. The results of this analysis suggest that there are tremendous deficits in technology support and significant research gaps for each language. This detailed expert analysis and assessment of the current situation will help maximise the impact of additional research.

META-NET currently consists of 54 research centres from 33 European countries. META-NET is working with stakeholders from economy (software companies, technology providers and users), government, research, non-governmental organisations, education, and language communities in creating a common technology vision and strategic research agenda for multilingual Europe 2020.